The invention relates to a high density edgecard connector system having interleaved cantilever contacts in the connector and a comb-like device on the circuit board to prevent cross connections between the cantilever contacts and contact pads on the circuit board.
Edgecard connectors are used to couple daughter boards to mother boards in electronic devices which are equipped with a plurality of such circuit boards. In such arrangements, when the daughter board is inserted into the edgecard connector, a row of cantilever contacts in the connector makes contact with adjacently arranged contact pads on one side of the daughter board; and an opposed row of cantilever contacts in the connector makes contact with contact pads on the opposite side of the daughter board. Due to the continuously advancing miniaturization of electronic components and assemblies and the increase in packing density, however, it would be desirable to have more contacts in the edgecard connector--for example, in two or more vertically spaced rows. However, if the daughter board is pulled from a live system, that is to say one which is under power, cross connections will be made between the vertical rows of contacts and pads. In order to avoid such cross connections in prior art connector designs, a daughter board can only be pulled out of an edgecard connector when the system is switched off.